Alicia
Princess Alicia was the fiancée of Herbert of Greys. She was an unlucky princess in Serenia who was turned into a Weeping Willow by the Old Witch of the Dark Forest by having her heart removed. Graham returned her heart and she regained her true form; and she was able to live happily ever after with her prince Background During a stroll through the Forest of Serenia, by mistake Prince Herbert and Princess Alicia ventured near the Dark Forest and were confronted by the evil witch. Herbert refused her advances and the witch jealously turned Alicia's heart into gold, transforming Alicia into the Weeping Willow. The witch also banished Herbert to the woods of a faraway land; but he eventually found his way back to Serenia where he spent months searching for his darling until Graham encountered him sitting on a log, despondent and hopeless that he would never find her. Moved by her loss and fate, Graham ventured into the Dark Forest to defeat the evil witch and recovered Willow's golden heart. Upon receiving it, she instantly transformed back to Princess Alicia and unceremoniously discarded her harp which Graham kept. At that moment, Herbert was reunited with Alicia and the two lovers went off together to return to her home, never to be seen again by Graham. Presumably they are living happily ever after. Homeland Alicia may be the princess of Serenia, thus making her the daughter of Kenneth the Huge and Priscilla. However, she may just be from a neighboring country (perhaps the same one or near the one Crispin was attending to) and was visiting Serenia when the witch cursed her. Her homeland is never specified and she never says she is visiting Serenia; just that she was out for a stroll in the woods (as if they are her woods). Her prince, Herbert, is apparently from Greys. Behind the scenes There are a number of stories used for inspiration for Alicia, parts of her story are similar to aspects of the Rapunzel story (her lover is sent across the world hopelessly lost trying to find her). The locked door in a tree in the woods is similar to an idea in "The Old Woman in the Wood", a German tale in which a key unlocks a door in a tree with food inside. In this story it is the prince who was turned into the tree, by the witch (the enchanted tree and the tree with the locked door are the same tree in the story). "The Heart of Princess Joan", in which fairies steal the heart of a child who grows up to be a beautiful woman, and a prince goes on an adventure to retrieve her heart. While some sources say they returned to her home, The Official Book of King's Quest states they left the country suggesting she is a princess of another land. It is noteworthy that as they walk off to the to east, the Companion states they walked off into the 'bushes', suggesting their homeland is somewhere past the poisonous snake to the east or beyond the Dark Forest to the northeast. The kingdom may possibly between Serenia and the Great Mountains. That they walked off into the 'bushes' would suggest that they had to walk through the Dark Forest to return to wherever they were heading. In the NES version they walk off to the west towards the Desert of all places (after stating that they going to return home). In the story of Repunzel, Herbert was sent into the desert, and left blind by Dame Gothel, and Repunzel found him there and healed his blindness with her tears. Category:Princesses Category:Characters (KQ5) Category:Humans